Not Another Homeschool Blog

My favorite part of homeschooling I finally have the kids trained to play piano first thing in the morning as a reflex. It does a mothers heart good to hear songs like Ode to joy, and other hymns first thing in the morning. I really gets me going... Its good for them too... They say playing an instrument makes the mind more creative, and makes math and science come more naturally. I couldn't be more happy about my musical morning.

I had my childrens lessons printed out and ready for them this morning, but last night my husband instructed them to do thier essays assigment over... I knew he would be a task master when I asked him to help, but I didn't he'd make a 2 hour assignment last 2 days.... Anyway, they spent the better part of the morning redoing the assignment and the after noon doing the work I assigned.. they did however seem enthusiastic about doing the work... seems like Dad is the great motivator.... I think I will keep him.

I'm sure you've heard of the sock gnome, who goes around stealing 1 foot of every sock you own, but we have a book gnome. Whenever anyone around here starts reading any book, the book gnome comes and carries it away. So this morning when Jordan and I are preparing to go over her lessons in What Your 3rd Grader Needs to Know the book seems to be gone...no where to be found. I had to find an alternate lesson for today which was to have her write a story using vocabulary words I already pulled from the book, and I will have to keep my eyes peeled for it today so we can do our review tomorrow. This problem was even worse when the kids were in school because books would disappear that I would have to pay for and beg the teacher to get a replacement... Also the kids would get punished severely for losing books so often. I've completely given up on having a library card because our late fees and missing book fees were through the roof. It is cheaper to just buy!

Seems we have had a whole month off from disciplined dedicated learning. Sure the kids have done some work and alot of natural leaning as well, but it is time to get focused, especially since we have decided to administer standardized testing this year. There will be alot of reading and writing and arithmetic in the next few months, but such concentrated learning can only happen at home where the child can move at thier own speed. Also my husband has finally agreed to actually help with the homeschooling instead of telling me what I should do. He will review with the each evening and help with any "homework" I might assign... of course the homework is for his benefit so he can actually see what they know instead of asking me.